Manchester United, Chelsea, and Liverpool are left sweating on the condition of their stars.
Chris Smalling
The Manchester United defender was involved in a nasty looking clash of heads with Holland’s Klaas-Jan Huntelaar towards the end of last night’s friendly. Smalling had to be helped off the pitch, but remained conscious. He was taken to hospital and required stitches to the wound. He is now unlikely to start against Spurs, and may struggle to make the bench, with United expected to continue with an Evans-Ferdinand pairing at the back. Sir Alex Ferguson will likely give an update on his condition in tomorrow morning’s press conference.
Daniel Sturridge
The Chelsea youngster limped off in the dying minutes of England’s friendly game, with what Pearce described as a ‘swollen toe’. Chelsea fans will be hoping the player will be available to play against West Brom this weekend. The worst case scenario is that he has suffered some sort of fracture, and could miss weeks of action, and the best is that it is just bruising and he will be back in training almost instantly. He will be checked over by club doctors today.
Steven Gerrard
The Liverpool skipper only completed half an hour of action for England, before being taken off by manager Stuart Pearce. The reason given was that it was simply a ‘precaution’ as Gerrard felt a concern with regard to his hamstring. He had played 120 minutes in the Carling Cup Final on Sunday and Liverpool have a crucial game with Arsenal coming up, so fans will cross their fingers he will indeed be available.
David Luiz
Chelsea’s Brazilian defender injured his foot playing for Brazil against Bosnia, and like Strurridge is being assessed to find out the impact of the damage. With John Terry also out injured Chelsea will not want to lose Luiz, who scored last time out against Bolton. He was also criticised by his manager for being outfought by Manchester City striker Edin Dzeko on a number of occasions while on the pitch, making the friendly a miserable affair for him.
Should mid-season international friendlies be scrapped?
image: © Paolo camera
Receive exclusive football transfer news and updates twice a week to your mailbox
